deskthority

This was a recent acquisition in case I needed parts for my other beam spring keyboards. This is for the IBM Displaywriter word processing system seen here. It's from 1981 and has a number of internal labels including one that says "Clare Division Canada"... from Clare Pendar fame?

It does have an interesting mechanical caps lock where pressing the shift key will unlock it. It is pictured with a metal bar that is visible above the rubber key cap cover. Unfortunately, the top rubber cover that is over the beam spring switches is very fragile and the cracks were already there. I couldn't remove the cover without destroying it so I am leaving it on. That means no pics of the key switch tops but you can see them in theBeam Spring wiki entry.

Anyway, here are some pictures.

Here are some pics:

More pics:

Internal and case pics:

Wow, what a board. Amazing pictures as always .

That is great to see inside the keyboard with HD photo. Love it!

Beautiful pictures. I have the same model. It has a lot of open space in the case. My plan is to replace some of the key caps with key caps from an IBM Selectric.

Are you telling me that the keycasp from the IBM Selectric are compatible with the Beam Spring ?
I need to research this.

Yes, the key caps are compatible with the Selectric typewriter.

Thanks snuci for posting these photos as I never even had a chance to take mine never mind post them. In particular I wanted to call attention to the edge connector between the pad card and the controller board. With my xwhatsit Displaywriter controller the socket is wider than the edge controller by just a little bit. I had to carefully position the xwhatsit so that it made contact with all of the fingers on the edge connector.

If you have any extra beam spring switches snuci please let me know and I will happily buy one off of you. I want to convert the Lock key on mine to a non latching key but this requires a spring. I guess if nothing else I can turn a replacement spring myself.

idollar wrote: Are you telling me that the keycasp from the IBM Selectric are compatible with the Beam Spring ?
I need to research this.

Yes, without a doubt. I have both types of keycaps in my possession right now and I have put a few of the Selectric keycaps on my Displaywriter beam spring just to test them out. I will take some pictures when my beam spring is back together.

vivalarevolución wrote:

idollar wrote: Are you telling me that the keycasp from the IBM Selectric are compatible with the Beam Spring ?
I need to research this.

Yes, without a doubt. I have both types of keycaps in my possession right now and I have put a few of the Selectric keycaps on my Displaywriter beam spring just to test them out. I will take some pictures when my beam spring is back together.

I will be waiting for these pictures

idollar wrote:

vivalarevolución wrote:

idollar wrote: Are you telling me that the keycasp from the IBM Selectric are compatible with the Beam Spring ?
I need to research this.

Yes, without a doubt. I have both types of keycaps in my possession right now and I have put a few of the Selectric keycaps on my Displaywriter beam spring just to test them out. I will take some pictures when my beam spring is back together.

I will be waiting for these pictures

Cleaning them right now, should be on the keyboard within a couple days. Can't wait to see the contrast in colors.

do you have some pictures of it? might be interested to see how the contrast/similarity looks like

$5 from Goodwill.

Sorry?

The price tag on the Displaywriter! It was $5 at Goodwill.